Why Do We Have Standardized Testing?

My first reason standardized tests are not a good idea is that they overpopulate the schools. Texas takes 15 and Indiana takes 5. The tests take away time from learning more about a subject. Our country as a whole takes way to many standardized tests. standardized tests are overpopulating schools and not letting kids learn more parts of the subjects.

By World War I, standardized testing was a common practice in the United States. It started with the Chinese, filling out tests to determine job status among the workers. During the industrial revolution, children left the farms and land to sit behind a desk, which caused the need to test a large amount of children quickly. The most common and well-known in our society are the SAT and ACT, which became a common rite of passage into universities in our society. There are many different views on standardized testing, creating a rift in our society, whether it has positive or negative impacts on our educational community and futures of children in our country.

Standardized testing has become a controversial topic in recent years, parents, students, teachers, principals and almost anyone who has a relationship with education is affected by this topic. People are either for or against standardized testing, some believe it is the only fair way to compare students others believe that the tests are too greatly stressed in school and are a nuisance to education. Standardized tests are stressed greatly, students learn testing material all year not focusing on anything else deemed unimportant by the test makers. Every student has the same amount of time and question on tests; they also are tested on the same subjects which the test makers believe are most important for children to learn. Standardized tests are used for many things such as ranking students on a national basis and government funding for schools.

The satirical news site The Onion did a pro and con list of standardized testing which highlights it perfectly. Some of the pros are, “Every student measured against same narrow, irrelevant set of standards” and, “Western tradition of critical thinking best embodied in bubble-sheet format”. One of the funnier cons is, “There are easier ways to measure parents’ income” (The Onion). In a sad way, these have some truth behind them. Which shows how much of a joke standardized testing

A Teachingabout.com “Examining the Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing,” Standardized testing allows students located in various schools, districts, and even states to be compared. Without standardized testing, this comparison would not be possible. Public school students in the state of Texas are all required to take the same state standardized tests. This means that a student in Amarillo can be compared to a student in Dallas. Being able to accurately analyze data is invaluable and is a primary reason that the Common Core State Standards have been adopted in many states. These will allow for a more accurate comparison between states.Yes, standardized tests allow students around the world to compare their scores. Although Connectusfund.org “10 Big Advantages and Disadvantages of Standardized Testing,” The tests do not really assess skill as the questions have to be generalized for the entire population. In short, the test items are not in conjunction with classroom skills and behavior. What standardized tests do is assess the general knowledge and understanding of students rather than their actual ability. Now would we really like to make students miserable by making them suffer through standardized test. So ask yourself do really think that students should take such horrifying things like standardized

The United States recognizes that standardized testing is a central part of the educational system in our country. What many people do not know though is the history of where it came from. Beginning in the mid-1800’s prestigious universities decided they wanted to give more students across the country a better chance at going into higher education, but at the time there was not a way to measure the capabilities of students in both high class and low class families. This is how standardized testing came into play. If a student could do well on these tests regardless of their financial position than their scores would hopefully speak for themselves. Now standardized testing performs many more roles compared to its simple origins.

Another problem with standardized tests is that they are limited in subjects. When a child starts school from third grade the first standardized exams they take are math and English. In fourth grade they add a science. In fifth grade they add social studies. But what about if you are stronger in art, do they have an exam for that? No they do not. A person who wants to major in art does not have an exam for them but they still have to take a English and math exam, since they aren’t that strong in that area most of them will not do as well as the others who are stronger in that area. This proves it doesn’t test a student’s strength or what they know.

    In recent years, teachers have started to teach students how to pass tests rather than actually teaching them the material. Tests like the ACTAAP, Benchmark, Iowa, ACT, and SAT are tests that children have learned how to pass, instead of actually learning the material. The tests do not give an accurate measurement as to how smart a child actually is. Standardized tests do not test every subject that is taught in schools.

Diane Ravitch once said “Sometimes, the most brilliant and intelligent minds do not shine in standardized tests because they do not have standardized minds.” Standardized test “is any form of test that requires all test takers to answer the same questions, or a selection of questions from common bank of questions, in the same way.” Different students will take the same test and then the test will be evaluated by professors to see how students did. Standardized tests also provides teacher evaluation, to evaluate if the professor is teaching the students in the right way and if students are understanding what the professor is teaching. Like many issues in education, standardized test is a controversial topic among professors, voters and parents. A lot of people believe that standardized testing is good for student and they show student’s achievements. Others disagree and believe that standardized tests don't measure student’s learning.

Standardized testing is a horrible way to show the learning ability of a student. It takes away all the fun in education, because the teachers have to focus on certain things to teach, and that is what will be on test. Students should be able to go to school and learn about what their future will hold or go more in depth with what they want to do when they graduate high school. Not to mention that standardized testing can be really stressful on students. We do not know what will be on that test, and we have a whole semester to get ready for them.

A school district’s ability to prepare students to be college and career ready is evaluated based upon standardized testing (William, 2010). Even as standardized testing has been the focus of a great deal of discussion and controversy in recent years regarding the validity of using standardized test scores to determine student proficiency, such tests have become more important as mandates such as No Child Left Behind required the use of standardized tests to determine if school districts are adequately educating their students (Kim & Sunderman, 2005). Researchers have noted that the reliance on standardized testing as a measure of how well school districts and their teachers are educating students has resulted in administrators and teachers changing their practices in order to achieve higher test scores (Supovitz, 2009). School administrators and teachers have placed much more focus on the actions that they can take in order to increase standardized test scores (Sink, 2003).

Is Standardized testing is making our students and teachers sick? I alfon ask the question why do we need standardized? They give us a test at the end of the year to see what skills we have learned in our classes, But what is the point for a test that doesn't even help you with your grades.

Standardized testing now days has changed and gotten a lot more helpful than it was in the past. Students are given a chance at studying what they learned and then use the studying on the test. So many teachers and educators believe that a standardized test is more important than an advanced test.

To begin with, people are against standardized testing because they believe it does not prepare them for the real life. Numerous amounts of people go into real life without knowing the basic qualities of the real world like pay taxes, how to buy a car, or how to manage their bank accounts. Schools focus so

The debate on standardized tests and its adequacy in testing a student’s knowledge about a subject has been going on for many years. Tests, in general, has been around for centuries and without them there would not be progress and no gleams of progress. Students ranging from elementary school to high school have experienced standardized testing. Teachers, educators, and parents are also involved in the students’ lives, which revolves around the tests, one way or another. There are many views on standardized test. However, the three most common views are: educators who are for standardized test which benefits students, educators who are at the other extreme of opposing standardized tests, and educators who view tests are a benefit if done in appropriate amounts.